


All is fair in love and war

by LimoFatig



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Bickering, Cunning Draco Malfoy, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Duelling, Hogwarts Eighth Year, M/M, Smart Ron Weasley
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-01
Updated: 2020-08-01
Packaged: 2021-03-06 06:08:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,940
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25658734
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LimoFatig/pseuds/LimoFatig
Summary: The new DADA teacher is a boring old man who can't teach a dragon how to spit fire. Draco is convinced people will curse him to an early death the second he gets out of Hogwarts. So he uses the most Slytherin way he can think of to learn.
Relationships: Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter
Comments: 5
Kudos: 79





	All is fair in love and war

“Oh piss off Malfoy, you don’t have the shittiest idea what you’re talking about!”

“When you and your over sized ego are done insulting me, maybe we can get back to practicing… oh and acknowledging I’m right as well.. Because, well, I am.”

Here we go again. In defense class this time. Harry and Draco yet again arguing over something silly, more for the sake of the arguing than anything else. It has happened pretty much every day since the beginning of eight year. 

That particular row was not entirely their fault though. Professor Lukewarm, the new DADA teacher, had paired them together for some reason. Boring as he was, Harry suspected it was not for the sake of seeing them have a cool duel together. He probably made a pointing system in his mind or something and paired them accordingly. That man was the only person alive able to render duelling boring.

Not that there was actual duelling happening. They were debating over the right hand movement of a new shielding charm Lukewarm had thought them. Not as strong as Protego, but could last a lot longer. Perfect against a weaker opponent who keeps throwing small jinks at you.

“Your movement needs to be sharper Potter. You’re way too slow, I would have time to jinx you 10 times in a real duel during the time it takes you to cast it. You move like an old snail trying to take his final steps in life.”

“Oh my god, do you hear yourself? It’s like you think you know everything and are the best at everything. I’ve seen Lukewarm do it. It needs to be smooth and precise. Then, I can concentrate on making you pay for those 10 jinks you managed to cast.”

“Until I stupefy your sorry arse.”

Harry couldn’t believe all the thing that would get out of Malfoy’s mouth. It was like the war never happened. Like the almost killing each other never happened. The battle, the fire, the trials, nothing. Suddenly they were 12 again.

It didn’t make any sense. Malfoy didn’t identify him at the manor. He had saved his life. Sent him a letter thanking him for his freedom, his wand back and more importantly his life, after the fiendfyre. The letter had felt sincere. Harry even hoped he and Malfoy could finally bury the hatchet for good.

But the second they stepped into Hogwarts again, all of that was abruptly forgotten.

“You wanna dance Potter? Very well, let me show you how it’s done.”

“You’ve been doing that for like 15 minutes and I still think you are wrong.”

“Don’t be daft Potter. Cast a jinx at me. Cast 10 for all I care. If any reach me, I will gladly admit defeat and proclaim you high and clear: Potter, the great knower of all.

Harry immediately thought about stupefying him like Malfoy had just threaten to do but didn’t think it would make his point. The new spell, _Cautio_ , wouldn’t work against a stunning spell and the point was to prove to Malfoy that he was casting it wrong. He had to cast something mild, only quickly enough.

Both boys took place to start the duel. “On the count of 3?” Harry asked. “Fine by me.” Draco answered with a sneer.

“1…” Harry started counting.

“2…”

“3”.

“ _Tarantallegra_!” Harry cast, noticing too late Malfoy executing the totally wrong hand movement for the Cautio charm, but the right one for a perfect and very powerful shielding charm. The dancing feet spell rebounded on the shield and soon enough Harry was dancing like crazy in the middle of class.

“You git! You cast Protego !! ('Non verbally at that, impressing', he thought) It’s like admitting I was right in the first place!” Harry managed to utter with difficulty, quickly loosing his breath because of the rapid dancing.

“Well…You did agree to dance with me, and here you are doing all of the dancing, yet again making a show of yourself in front of your adoring fans. You should thank me for leaving you all the spotlight.” Draco answered, smiling chin high, looking very proud of himself.

Harry’s legs were getting tired and as soon as Draco noticed, he cancelled the jinx, even extending a helping hand to put Harry back on his feet. But before pulling him up, he whispered in his ear: “You will never win against me if you keep playing it fair.”

As soon as Harry was standing up straight, Lukewarm called the end of class. He took his bag on the floor and went for the door without another glance at Malfoy.

**

Malfoy had decided to stay to practice the Cautio charm, after having yet again cunningly used Potter to teach him how to do it. He noticed at the beginning of the school year that he usually zoned out when Lukewarm was talking and often missed the hand movements explanations. Provoking Potter into explaining them to him seemed the simplest way to learn without getting caught napping by the new Professor. Plus Potter was a way better teacher, even when yelling at him.

“I know what you’re doing you know”, someone behind him declared.

Turning his head swiftly, Draco noticed Granger hadn’t left the classroom and had waited for everyone to head out to speak to him.

“You mean using Potter as a DADA tutor so I can take naps during Lukewarm’s lectures? I still can’t believe he hasn’t noticed it yet. Last week, I argued that the disarming charm made orange light so I could see him do it from up front.”

“And you never thought about asking him to teach you? He might not be the finest observer of human behavior, but he is a great teacher. I’m sure he would accept.”

“Of course, the great Savior of the world would accept to help a Death Eater get better at defending himself. Don’t kid yourself Granger. This year in Hogwarts is only a delayed sentence for me. The minute I’m out of here, I’m dead. Unless I learn to properly defend myself. And who else is better to teach me how than the DADA king?”

“You’re being serious, aren’t you?”

“You seem surprised. Didn’t you just say that you knew what I was doing? Maybe you had something else in mind?”

“Well, yes and no. I guessed the provoking him to teach you part. Not the need to be taught at any cost part. I believed you were doing this out of laziness. And maybe because it feels good for you to be back to your normal bickering relationship with Harry. That it grounds you to go back to something simple and petty like that.”

“I have to admit… it is fun. I…”

They were suddenly interrupted by Potter loudly coming back into the DADA classroom. “Are you coming Hermione? We’re starving, Ron and I”, he explained, looking back and forth between his friend and Draco.

Draco made a subtle yet clear head movement suggesting Hermione that she should go. She nodded and followed Harry to lunch.

**

A few weeks later, having provoked Potter a couple more times into explaining more and more complicated defense spells, Draco felt a lot more confident in his capacities. Fortunately, it was this day Lukewarm decided to make his class a lot less boring.

“Today we will… do… something… a little… different”, mumbled the middle-aged man using his typical monotone voice. “We will have… duels.”

He then began to explain the rules without noticing how little his students were listening.

The Professor had somehow managed to explain that the pairings were posted on a sheet near the main door. He did have a scoring system that would pair them according to many variables that would optimize the number of more or less equal partners.

Approaching the sheet, Draco hoped he would be paired with Potter, but doubted it could happen. DADA was never his best subject and Lukewarm’s system couldn’t possibly take into account the fact that he had gotten better in the last few weeks.

****

** Dueling partners; Tuesday, October 10th 1998 **

…

Neville Longbottom – Ronald Weasley

Draco Malfoy – Hermione Granger

…

Harry Potter – Umpire

Of course. They were an odd number of students and Potter was too good for any of them to face up anyway, so Lukewarm had made him the judge. 

They were all to duel one pairing after the other, so they could all watch and learn. It was way more official than what they usually did in that class and it was putting Draco on edge. Granger, having been in close encounter of Potter’s magic for years, would annihilate him.

He started paying more attention during Longbottom and Weasley’s duel. It was actually quite interesting to watch. They couldn’t be more opposite. Longbottom was fierce and kept casting powerful attack spells but was getting tired from never defending himself. Weasley was a lot more calculating, took his time before casting and was clearly thinking ahead. Weasley finally won after casting back to back Impedimenta and Petrificus Totalus. The first one having slowed down Longbottom too much to dodge or block the full-body bind. Draco was actually impressed by the clever way Weasley had played this.

It was now his turn. If the Weasel was that good, Granger would make him eat his own balls. The only way out of this was cheating.

They both took their position and bowed appropriately. Granger casted a Cautio almost immediately so Draco couldn’t cast small jinxes anymore and thus forcing him to cast stronger hexes. 

He was afraid she would be able to make those rebound on him like Potter had done instead of ricochet away and that he would end up being the one dancing this time. He thought about doing it on purpose so she would be distracted long enough by her own laughter so he could disarm her, but it was a huge risk and he was already getting tired. He was moving around a lot to block her stronger and stronger jinks and she herself was barely moving. If he was to do something big and unpredictable, he had to do it soon.

He caught Potter’s eye in the crowd, and it hit him. Wow, that was a bad idea. There was no coming back from it. But it was a guarantied win.

‘Here goes nothing’. Draco whispered to himself, still looking straight at Potter before casting: “EXPECTO PATRONUM!!!”.

Instantly, the beautiful stag started bouncing right towards Granger, having its desired effect and completely baffling her for just the slip second it took to quickly cast a disarming charm.

He had won.

Shifting away to make place for the next duel, he spotted in the corner of his eye Potter walking towards him.

Draco noticed how he was placing himself so he could talk to the Slytherin while still looking at the duel as he should, being the judge.

“Your patronus is a stag”, he stated, looking at him with wide green eyes.

“It is.” He replied with a smile. Potter knew. He knew what that meant.

The Gryffindor nodded, took a deep breath. Draco could see all the thinking that was going in his mind. All the questions newly answered. All the new ones that this situation brought.

"I guess Hermione won't ever win either if she plays it fair with you."

"Well you know what they say. All is fair and all."

"I do know." Harry said, quickly touching Draco's arm with a giant grin before going back to his umpire spot. 

Draco might have won in more than one way that day. 

**Author's Note:**

> "Time shall unfold what plighted cunning hides: Who cover faults, at last shame them derides." W. Shakespeare


End file.
